Blast From the Past: their/there/they're and to/too/two
Welcome to this week's installment of Blast From the Past! This week, we've got a two-fer of commonly confused words for you: their/there/they're and to/too/two. Both were orignally covered in January 2008 by green_grrl, then both got individual focus in their own BftP: the former in November 2011 by chiroho and the latter in October 2011 by supercheesegirl. So let's see if we can get a brief refresher on these two homophone triads with a little help from our friends over at Witches of East End.
their/there/they're
Use their to note possession of something or someone.
Joanna always guesses the correct way her daughters want their breakfast made.
Use they're as a contraction to indicate "they are" or "they were."
"Wendy, you know very well they're not going to care what you wear," Victor said with a sad smile.
Use there as an adverb indicating a location, either real or imagined, or as an exclamation. This is also used in all instances where the previous two options don't work.
"There!" Freya said with a grin and pointed. "Mama's hiding over there!"
A good way to remember these is as follows: If you can substitute "here" and it makes sense, use there. If there's an apostrophe, make sure you mean they are/were. And finally, possessive has an i in it, so use their.
to/too/two
If you mean the number 2, use two.
Joanna Beauchamp has two daughters and one son.
If you mean "excessively" or "also", use too.
Wendy enjoyed the freedom of being a cat a little too much sometimes.
Joanna says this of Wendy, too.
If you mean anything else, use to, whether as a preposition or to indicate the infinitive form of a verb.
It's time to go to the store.
For the best way to remember which one of these to use, just remember there's is more then one o when it's too much or in addition to something, and if you're counting, it's two. Otherwise, use to.
If you're careful and mindful, you can catch the common errors that cause confusion with these words!
their/there/they're
Use their to note possession of something or someone.
Joanna always guesses the correct way her daughters want their breakfast made.
Use they're as a contraction to indicate "they are" or "they were."
"Wendy, you know very well they're not going to care what you wear," Victor said with a sad smile.
Use there as an adverb indicating a location, either real or imagined, or as an exclamation. This is also used in all instances where the previous two options don't work.
"There!" Freya said with a grin and pointed. "Mama's hiding over there!"
A good way to remember these is as follows: If you can substitute "here" and it makes sense, use there. If there's an apostrophe, make sure you mean they are/were. And finally, possessive has an i in it, so use their.
to/too/two
If you mean the number 2, use two.
Joanna Beauchamp has two daughters and one son.
If you mean "excessively" or "also", use too.
Wendy enjoyed the freedom of being a cat a little too much sometimes.
Joanna says this of Wendy, too.
If you mean anything else, use to, whether as a preposition or to indicate the infinitive form of a verb.
It's time to go to the store.
For the best way to remember which one of these to use, just remember there's is more then one o when it's too much or in addition to something, and if you're counting, it's two. Otherwise, use to.
If you're careful and mindful, you can catch the common errors that cause confusion with these words!